Magritte's empire of lights is in my opinion one of the most significant works of the twentieth century and one of the most convincing inventions of Magritte and the surrealist movement.
This powerful iconic image that shows us a landscape shrouded in darkness under a daytime sky, has been taken up several times by the painter.
In the video, after a general introduction to Magritte's art, I will analyze one of the best known versions of the painting, the one preserved in Venice.
Below I will present some works that may have influenced Magritte in the creation of this masterpiece and in closing other versions of the Empire of lights.
Before going into the analysis of the painting, I think a brief introduction to Magritte's art is useful.
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One of the painter's declared goals is to show us the dark, hidden, mysterious side of things. Magritte invites us to go beyond appearances.
And how does he pursue this goal? By presenting us with perceptual and conceptual paradoxes, by approaching in the same picture aspects of reality that are incongruent that displace us and that short-circuit our decoding of data.
Especially in the mature phase of his career, therefore after World War II, Magritte uses a realistic technique, very objective, linear, almost cold and close to illustration, which has the merit of making the deception more plausible.
We recognize very plausible objects or landscapes in his works. We recognize a house, a tree, a window, a pipe to quote one of his most famous works of him, because they are painted with great realism and come close to the prototype we have in mind. If Magritte paints a tree he does so by approaching the most common possible idea that a Western viewer could have of a tree.
But just when we recognize the verisimilitude of what is represented in the painting as we actually know it in reality, the trap that Magritte sets for us through paradoxical combinations is triggered.
Let's try to observe Magritte's empire of lights. We recognize a house, its lighted windows, a lamppost, trees, a blue sky with white clouds. It is all very credible. But at some point we feel that something is not right because the lower part of the painting is set in the evening or even at night, the upper one during the day.
If we isolate the two parts of the painting this is even more obvious.
The lower part of the painting is a glimpse with a house. It is evening, the electric street lamp is on and the light coming from the interior filters through two windows on the left.
Other windows are closed instead. . A large boulder is placed on the lawn in front of the house.
We are in front of a representation that shows us a quiet evening during which life flows as always, without jolts.
If we isolate the upper part of the picture instead, we observe the beautiful light in broad daylight of a blue sky crossed by some clouds. Very common white clouds that Magritte inserts to reassure us that it is a normal day of good weather with some passing clouds.
Let's go back to an overview of the picture.
The house is surrounded by some trees. One of these stands out with its dark silhouette against the light and rises towards the sky. So let's see how Magritte brings an element of darkness to the top of the picture.
At the same time Magritte brought light to the lower part through the street lamp and the open windows of the house.
We are therefore faced with a painting that embodies opposites, day and night, light and darkness that coexist on one side and interpenetrate on the other.
The moment of transition between "day and night" or "night and day" which according to natural rhythms is dilated in the minutes of dusk or dawn, which have a short but still significant duration, disappears in the painting instead.
In the one instant set and painted by Magritte the opposites, day and night simply coexist, coexist.
In my opinion, the strength of the painting lies precisely in this total vision. Magritte shows us what no experience of reality can ever show us. Rather it approaches the dream world where the laws of nature and physics are disrupted and we can experience the seemingly most absurd associations.
Let me know what you think of Magritte's empire of lights and the painter himself with a comment!
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8 июл 2024
